Social Report: Telecommuting

Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer made headlines recently with her decision to do away with telecommuting at her company.

In a letter to employees, she wrote: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side by side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.”

Best Buy Co. Inc. made a similar decision, telling Minnesota Public Radio, “The notion of collaboration and colleagues working together, being physically present around one another, matters a great deal.”

We asked Greater Des Moines businesses what they thought of telecommuting. Of the 79 survey responses, 34 responders identified themselves as business owners, executives or managers.

Responses were pretty evenly split, but 39 percent of you told us employees are less productive when they telecommute.

Note: Of the people who identified themselves as an owner, executive or manager, 50 percent said employees were less productive outside of the office, as opposed to only 17.6 percent who said they were more productive.